Chocolate yum yum cake

Here is my recipe for a super moist chocolate cake


Ingredients--

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Butter cream Frosting 

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (more to your tastes)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2-3 cups of powdered sugar 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract; beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in hot water
2. Pour batter evenly between the three pans and bake on middle rack of oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

Frosting 

Mix butter till soft. Add in the cocoa powder slowly. And finally mix in the powdered sugar and milk, add more or less for consistency. Mix  well till Light and fluffy.

Up in the Air

Today I happened to catch a bit of the George Clooney flick "Up in the Air". And it got me thinking; this is my life. I spend 80-90 percent of my time away from my home. And this has been going on ever since i got my first job. During my career stint in the US, I spend the majority of my Monday mornings and Thursday evening on airplanes. I racked up enough airmile points to travel around the world ... in first class !!! I move to Canada and they got me flying again!!

Travelling for work has become the norm these days. But what is the impact that it has on the personal life? If your constantly traveling for work there cannot be any work life balance. But is there really any work life balance. I am of the opinion that a work life balance is a management of priorities (personal stuff and work stuff). If your work priorities wins then you stay back after 6pm and work the night away. If your personal priorities wins you leave work at 10 am. Thats what work life balance is to me. And sometimes my personal priorities could be as simple as i just need a break now. And if the company or boss does not get it, they are just going to loose a good employee. But i digress ..

Is travel really all that necessary with all the modern technology that is readily available to us these days. Is it absolutely necessary to be physically present to get the job done. Wouldn't a video conference meeting serve the same purpose as a being physically present for the meeting. And think about the amount of money the company can save by limiting the travel. They could save on air fare, hotel, meals, various misc expenses. Of course for the sake of relationship management some travel is necessary. But weekly is probably unnecessary.

In either case, i am of the opinion that constant work travel is a single man's game. There is no way you can maintain a relationship with constant travel. And if you are married, i think constant travel will have to be a family decision. A while back, a friend had asked me what my professional ambitions were; he was surprised when i told him that i was only interested in rising the corporate ladder upto a vice president level and no higher. When pressed for an explanation, i responded saying that at a certain point you will have to make a choice between family and career. You will not be able to satisfy both masters and for me i feel that point is at the vice president level. Any higher and you on the road a lot and will miss out on family engagements and thus, sacrificing family for work.

Just my thoughts on work travel situation as i pack a bag for my trip tomorrow morning.

A year later and the search is still on .....

The search still continues for that post MBA corner office career. But in the mean time I decided to take the path less traveled. While most of my classmates have taken up fantastic careers in consulting, finance, marketing or become entrepreneurs; I decided to take up a career that throws me out in the Canadian wilderness in weather conditions that cross -30C in the white of winter and where bears, wolves and other wildlife roam freely around my office space.

A work environment where graduating high school is a big accomplishment, a place where cursing is a part of normal conversation.  Where the dress code is raggedy torn jeans and unkempt hair.  This from the guy who used to have to wear a suit and a pound of gel to work. Definitely chose a life less ordinary.  

What do I do you ask? I control  the financial budgets for projects, the work is tedious paper work and absolutely boring! It just so happens that I do this for Oil and Gas exploration and construction projects. Thus, the remote work locations. You could say that my job is to “lay pipe” and you wouldn’t be stretching the truth.  

Why did I do it? Not sure. I will agree that  I was getting frustrated with the corporate culture. But then why do an MBA? I guess the easiest answer is that I wanted to experience something different, take on a bit of adventure; spice up my life, if you will, as if living in India wasn’t spicy enough! BUT at the same time keep the option of returning to the corporate jungle alive. After all, my job is to control money, that too multi million dollars’ worth of it. These projects are not cheap; every number here is followed by 5 or 6 zeros.

What else has happened this past year? My social life, well that’s nonexistent. I don’t think I have made a new friend in the past year. And the party scene is, for lack of a better word … boring. I think I can count in one hand the number of times I have been out enjoying the night life over the last year. Its just not the same anymore and I am glad to say that the party animal is dead.  My drink if choice now is water.

Don’t think I have cooked a meal since I quit the restaurant 13 months ago. Long hours and being constantly on the road have definitely impacted my eating habits. Its usually takeout for dinner and a unhealthy snack for lunch.  And this poor eating definitely shows on the waistline. Particularly, since the gym and I have become strangers now. Ofcourse, all this has resulted in my athletic prowess taking a beating, people who were no competition before are now running circles around me. But I am hoping that will change soon especially since i just bought a punching bag.  

Its been a while since i made any new entry, almost 2 years. What has happened in my life since my last entry? Well...... took a job and had to move to Sydney, Australia, moved back to Bangalore India. Resigned from that job to pursue an MBA in Canada, completed the MBA and moved again to the OilSands of Canada.
Along the way, I met a lot of blokes who could count a lot higher than ten. Some of who had the potential to be the Captains of Industry and Leaders of Tomorrow. My friend circle changed, i now shared the room with Micheal Porter, Peter Drucker, Fobes and Bloomberg... well if not the person, at least with their publications.
Time progressed, i learnt a lot and I drank a lot. Went on a health kick, reclaimed my love for basketball and squash. Took part in an intramural basketball tournament; a bunch of out of shape 30 year olds outclassed by the younger, more athletic underclassmen. Wore a lot of suits, did a lot of models... "financial models", learnt to strategize and categorize everything in a 2x2 matrix, analyzed the world and did more finance. Got a lot of B's and drank a lot. Tried to start 2 companies and drank a lot. And so the year passed and it came time to say goodbye so we drank a lot, toasting the future.
The fun was over and it was time to move back into the real world. Armed with an MBA, a passport of international experience and an arsenal full of strategies, 2x2 matrices, industry and SWOT analysis, I was ready to conquer the world. I hopped on a train and headed out west in search of Black Gold. But alas, Lady Luck is on vacation since I have spent months on end staring at job boards, meeting ppl, writing and rewriting my resume and cover letters. All in the pursuit of a post MBA career.

the Search continues....

are we speaking the same language

I had an interesting conversation today with the HR of an Indian based Multinational Company. Below is an excerpt

HR: we will need to remove 6 months experience from your total experience.

Me: Why!?!?!

HR: because you have a Bachelor of Science degree

Me: What do you mean by that?

HR: It is not an engineering degree

Me: No, i do have an engineering degree. I have Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering.

HR: Yes, you have a Bachelor of Science degree. it is not an engineering degree. Engineering degree is a Btech (bachelor of technology)

Me: (completely baffled probably even scratching my head)

HR: So that is why we need to remove 6 months

Me: Why 6 months?

HR : Because you did a 3 year degree.

Me: No, it was a 4 year degree.

Me: (realization dawns) I think we are misunderstanding each other. In India a Bachelor of Science may be a 3 year degree. However, at Purdue University where I read engineering, the degree offered is a Bachelor of Science. But for our purposes you can consider my degree to be equivalent to that of a Bachelor of Technology.

HR: I will have to get back to you.

Subtle cultural differences. Though i still dont understand why if one did a 3 yr program they were going to remove 6 month of work experience. And why 6 months why not a year?

(edit) I later found out 6 months is removed for the lack of a real world project work, which is part of the course of a BTech degree in India. But isnt the project work only for the duration of the semester which is usually only 4 months. So shouldnt they remove only 4 months of experience rather than 6?

Grad school anyone!

You need to retake the classes you got a D in.

Why ?

Else you wont get into Graduate school

Grad school! More studying? No! I do not have any intention of going to grad school.

Okay but I hope you dont regret this decision.

Ah! the young and the naive. The above is an excerpt of a conversation a lazy 21 year old (me) had with his college academic councilor.

Now an older and much wiser me is in the process of applying to GRAD SCHOOL! To be specific an MBA program. Why? (you ask) ... There is a 500 word essay on that, which i am not going to post here.

So what have i learnt from this. Well, life changes. You can plan ahead on you life path but chances are that you are going to have to make changes to it. The 21 year old, me was absolutely certain he was not going to further continue his studies. So why is the 29 year old me applying to MBA programs? Simplest reason, i have found a passion a passion that i did not know existed as a college student. Is an MBA necessary to follow my passion? Well no, but it does require some advanced studying that only masters programs or tremendous amounts of time in a library can provide.

So i chose the MBA path and since I am going to Business school I thought I might as well try to get into the best of the lot. Where competition is stiff and selectivity into the program meanders around 10% of all applicants. If your going to dance might as well dance with the best of them, right. What are the weaknesses of my candidacy? The foolishness of the 21 year old mentality and poor grades suffered as a consequence is probably the biggest.

I guess it actually pays to listen to your elders, they may not have the same life experiences as you. But at least they are more aware of the complexities and changes that can occur in life.

A love affair in remorse

A love affair in remorse

I met you when I was twenty two,

And knew you were not true.

Our meets left me in doubt,

And a bad taste in my mouth.

At first our encounters remained in bars and cars,

But soon moved to anywhere under the stars.

So our love sustained,

And pretty soon I was chained.

I shared you with coffee, I shared you with beer

And never thought you would make me shed a tear.

I sought to you in comfort; I sought to you in relief,

In you I held my belief.

But you turned to be a cruel mistress,

And being with you became an illness.

With courage and support I brought the relationship to an end,

And without you a year was spend.

But alas your aroma and presence was ever there,

And so continued our affair.

You were my muse,

My worries you did unconfuse.

You stole my presence more and more,

And I became your whore.

I used to be an athlete, I swear,

But with you I am gasping for air.

Together we travelled the world,

But frankly this is becoming absurd.

That you are cancer is well known,

This the research has shown.

We used to share a laugh,

But now all you bring is a cough.

I wish to no longer be your slave,

As for certain you will put me to the grave.

Thus, with this last puff,

I hope to end my affair with this cancer ridden stuff!

Ps: This is about cigarettes.

ohh that smell, the smell of us around you

Today I am reminded of an incident i saw not too long back. Urinating on the street is all too common in India. Not Sure if there is a law against it or not, but if a law does exist it is not exercised; much like the women cannot wear pants law in Paris. I have seen ppl urinating on the streets in all places i have been to in India. Infact i have seen it happen in Dubai and the United States, but in the US if your caught, its a $50 fine. I speak from experience, not personal but that of a friend's; and in Dubai its probably jail time. However, the incident I am talking about is not urinating on the street but rather the other bodily excrement. Yes, i saw a man defecating on the street. True the man was homeless but to do that in public on a fairly busy street speaks volumes about our great country.

India they say is growing at a fast pace, 9% growth in the midst of a global recession. India is a developing nation knocking on the doors of the developed. But what is it that defines a country as developed? Is it the economy, trade relations, global stance and government? Or should the cities, infrastructure and population mimic those of the recognized developed nations such as United States, Japan, Australia or UK? If it is only the former then yes India is on its way towards the developed nations club and could essentially enter the club within a decade or so. However, if the latter needs to be considered then it may be a while, probably not in my lifetime, before India is considered a developed nation. Our cities are congested, the infrastructure is not well planned and our population is not well educated. Sure, we export the largest number of software professionals, a highly skilled profession, but that is not the education that i am talking about here. Education is etiquette, interpersonal skills and open mindedness; that is what is lacking. "You can take the Indian out of India, but you cannot take India out of him"; this is true, unfortunately not in a good way. Having met a lot of my fellow citizens in foreign lands i have noticed a certain lack of the three above mentioned attributes; my intention is not to generalize an entire race however one visit to Naif street or Meena Bazaar in Dubai or Little India enclaves in New Jersey and Chicago will help prove my point. But i ramble on ... lets first try and get free public toilets that all can use. I shudder to think what he used to clean himself, but did not wait to find out.

Bargaining

Yesterday i had to travel from Chennai to Bangalore and as i am the sort who does not plan these things, my only option was to take the bus service. On arrival at the bus terminal i was met by a lot of ticket vendors and finally found one who was selling tickets to Bangalore. His price was almost double what i though the normal fare should be, so we started to bargain. Eventually he brought it down to 650 still a lot more than i was willing to pay. His reasoning for the price ... This bus is going to Goa via Bangalore, so that is why it is more expensive!!

Bargaining is a common trend in India. You can haggle over pretty much anything as long as ur not in a big department store. Infact, bargaining is a livelihood for some ppl; they act as a broker trying to sell a product at much higher than the original price inorder to pocket the difference. this scheme i guess would only work on the tourists since the penny pinching Indian is always ready to bargain. When it comes to bargaining knowing the language helps a lot and knowing ur surroundings too. But what i have found helps the most is acting like you dont want it. If you start to walk away they will drastically reduce the price. This tactic has worked on a few occasions. More on this later as i hone my negotiating skills. These skills will come in handy later in life.